SERGEANT 1st Class Gregory McQueen knew the female soldier, then a 20-year-old private second class, had been sexually assaulted while training at a different Army post.

As a low-level co-ordinator in Fort Hood’s sexual assault and harassment program — and one of her commanders — it was McQueen’s job to prevent this type of thing from happening again.

Instead, the woman testified, McQueen and another female soldier invited her to a home for drinks last year and tried to recruit her into a prostitution ring at the Fort Hood military base in Killeen, Texas, telling her that she could make “$400 to $500 a night”.

When the other soldier left the room, the woman said, McQueen kissed and touched her until she pushed him away.

“I was getting really nervous, getting really angry, but knowing that I can’t fight a sergeant,” said the woman, testifying in a case that has focused national attention on the issue of military sexual assault.

East Gate of Fort Hood ... A Sergeant is facing up to 21 charges if allegations he organised a prostitute ring for cash-strapped female soldiers is substantiated.Source:AP

An Article 32 hearing — in which evidence is presented to determine whether a case will go to trial — began on Tuesday for McQueen. The hearing is similar to a grand jury proceeding.

Prosecutors said McQueen ran a prostitution ring at Fort Hood for a month or two that took advantage of cash-strapped female soldiers and connected them with higher-ranking officers.

Another woman — a private first class who had tried to recruit that female soldier with McQueen — told the court that McQueen drew her into the prostitution ring after she told him that she was having financial difficulties.

Her husband had left her and her three-year-old son, and had cleaned out their bank account. She was 20 when McQueen approached her in February 2013, she said.

McQueen told her there were other ways to make money and arranged to meet her at her on-base home that night, she said. He told her that he could connect her with higher-ranking officers who were willing to pay to have sex with her.

McQueen then asked her to “act out what (she) would do” and he had sex with her, she said. He took a picture of her while she was undressed.

The woman told the court that McQueen would show the picture to other service members to see if they were interested in paying her for sex.

Another soldier at the Army base in central Texas, Master Sgt. Brad Grimes, has already been demoted and reprimanded in the case for conspiring to patronise a prostitute and solicitation to commit adultery.

The private testified Tuesday that McQueen arranged for her to have sex with Grimes for $100.

A second female soldier testified that McQueen sexually assaulted her and also attempted to recruit her to join the prostitution ring, but she declined.

The names of the female soldiers who testified — three in all — have not been released. Fort Hood spokesman Tyler Broadway said it’s to protect the women.

Anu Bhagwati, executive director of Service Women’s Action Network and a former captain with the Marine Corps, said prostitution rings are not uncommon within the military and the allegations against McQueen were no surprise.

“Institutionally, a lot of inappropriate behaviour is condoned,” she told AP.

“Women are so few within the military still that I think predators look at women as fresh meat and the military as an institution where they can get away with criminal activity.”

More testimony is expected today, including from Grimes.

McQueen’s attorney, Joseph Jordan, did not return a phone call to the AP seeking comment Tuesday.

Fort Hood would not release the initial charges list — akin to the complaint in a civilian case — when the AP requested a copy.

The case has brought renewed focus on the prevalence of sexual assault within the military.

In March, the US Senate blocked a bill that would have stripped military commanders of their authority to prosecute or prevent charges for alleged rapes and other serious offences.